What’s going on? Am I missing out on something? Or should I say on something else: all the opportunities for small-talk that might make me feel more comfortable and confident in asking if your child wants to come to ours for tea, because our kids are friends. I am bamboozled. I feel the opening gambit has been lost.

My audiologist is great. He tries everything, but it’s about how the brain processes the reduced amount of sound I get, which is about half what anybody else might hear. Lip-reading goes only so far. I’d swap my arm for your hearing. Or my leg. It depends what day it is and how many times I’ve had to get someone else to answer my phone. Or how many times I’ve had to ask the woman in the supermarket to repeat herself, only to realise she’s asking if I have a loyalty card, as she has every other time I’ve been at her till. As a single dad, I’m in the shop a lot.

When Rafal Senk moved to the UK he found people more accepting of his sexuality than in his native Poland. However, his profound deafness meant he was unable to get the right support from councils and soon became homeless. With the help of one of the charities supported by the Guardian and Observer Christmas appeal , Rafal was able to begin rebuilding his life